Retelling of Future Events
by sidechain
Summary: After a deep breath, my started to finally tell my two kids of my story: how Sakura and I came to be, how I saved Sasuke, and how I came to be Hokage.


Okay, I'm taking a shot at Naruto now. Please forgive me if it doesn't appeal to you.

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**I.**

Wind currents twisted and turned around the corners of Konohagakure. Green foliage scattered around in every nook and cranny, or took to the azure sky in slipshod flips. One leaf floated, swerved, weaved, rose, fell, and finally found its way across the Leaf Village and onto an oversized forehead. The owner scaled their eyes vertically upward to peer at the said leaf. Then a hand, forearm, elbow and upper arm moved one after the other in sections to pry the paper-thin, emerald-stained leaf from her flat screen forehead. She looked it over, flipping it on its backside just to turn it 360 degrees She held it by the stem of it and held it in front of her shimmering, jade orbs, and murmured something to herself,

"Will you ever come back?"

She then sighed and collapsed on the dusty path, not caring a thing in the world if anyone saw her sitting there looking like a psychotic hobo. She chuckled at the thought to hopefully fend off a tear her eye threatened to release. A hand met her eye, and she transported her tear to her fore-finger, and held it in front of her face. The pink-haired girl made a face. She made a promise to herself, a tough promise. Well, not really a promise, more like a rule.

That rule was: No Crying. No crying whatsoever.

At first, that seemed like the hardest thing to do in the entire world for her. Then, as the days passed, since _he_ vanished into the darkness, she became stronger. Her walls became higher and tougher. She was even in a particular phrase people (behind her back) called her "Sasuke" phrase. Basically, she was a human ice block in that phrase. Cold-hearted, silent, and uncaring to anybody but her own soul. Well, she was even tougher on her own soul.

She started to draw in the sand.

Thoughts of him poked at her mind, urging her to cry. Sakura wouldn't do it, though; she didn't allow herself to. The past few weeks since her crush had said 'Thank you', knocked her unconscious, and left without a simple 'goodbye' have proved to be increasingly rough. Training sessions that lasted for more than twenty hours at a time had done a number on Sakura. Then, the weeks turned into months. With her raven-haired teammate outside the village premises, she didn't have anyone to look up to. Tsunade was there to tutor her and acted as a second mother-figure, of course; but, she didn't have anyone else there to fill the huge void he left behind.

Ino wasn't a big help, either.

Once in a while, Sakura would take a trip to the Yamanakas' to conjure up a seemingly pleasant conversation with her blonde friend. Even though she was smiling as big as she could muster; Ino felt sympathy for her every time, understanding to a degree of what she was going through. Ino would try to cheer her up in everyway like the good friend she really could be, but to no avail. She would always come to a halting point. One time Ino made Sakura happier than she had been in a long time, but she accidentally said something along the lines of 'Sasuke would've loved to hear this'. Sakura deadpanned, said 'bye', and walked promptly out of the store, leaving Ino smacking her forehead repeatedly with a gloved hand.

As the days rolled by, and everyone was occupied with a kunai or a new jutsu to be learned, Sakura had a change in her behavior. She didn't smile anymore, laugh around anyone anymore, and practically stowed herself away into the confinement of her dusty apartment if she wasn't training alone. One day, Neji and Tenten encountered her during one of her training sessions, and from what people heard of what the turnout was, Neji hid a lot of his bruises well. Apparently Sakura didn't want to be interrupted, much less approached.

Even Kakashi avoided her at some points.

It pained everyone to see Sakura like that, if they even got a chance to see her. Tsunade would send private ANBU Black Ops just to check on her, only to have those crawling back with a black-eye, a puffed lip, and few words of advice for the Hokage like 'I'm sorry, Tsunade-sama' or 'Don't make me do that ever again'. Tsunade sighed whenever the usual victim came back, sometimes audibly cursing herself for being 'too overprotective' or for being a 'paranoid grandma like Naruto always says I am'. She convinced herself that Sakura needed someone close to her to break her and mold her again. Someone that wouldn't be running from Sakura Haruno. Someone that understands how she feels about her long lost teammate-slash-crush. Someone like,

"NARUTO!"

Oh, why did she have to pick me? I thought about Tsunade had assigned me after I left her office. I was walking along a dirt path when my line of vision strayed toward the ground. Something caught my eye, and I stayed staring at that spot for a long time. At first it looked like an ordinary sand-doodle: messy. As I looked it over a few more times, scuffled around it to get a better view, and tilted my head at the right angle, though; my thoughts changed immediately. I rummaged for a picture I had in my pant pocket, and fished it out. Looking at the picture, then at the sand, I knew what I had to do.

It was Team 7, Team Kakashi, in all it's Sakura smiling, Sasuke's deadpanning, Naruto's scowling, and Kakashi's head-gripping wonder. What irked me, though, was that it had a huge diagonal slash down the middle, like the person that drew this was mad at Team 7. Then a waterfall of thoughts came to my head.

Sasuke. Sakura. Team Kakashi. Forest of Death.Orochimaru. Curse Mark. Snake. Kabuto. Team Sound. Kimimaro. Sasuke Retrieval... Sasuke Retrieval. Then it finally hit me. _"I'm gonna bring Sasuke back! I promise!" _I made a promise to Sakura, and I broke it. It was my fault she came to be like this...

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It was silent for a while until my little girl with pink hair and emerald eyes bounced up onto my lap and tugged at one of my locks, "Get on with the story, dad!"

"From the way you told that story you sounded like a potential stalker, Oyaji. I'm going to bed, dattebayo," my thirteen year old son got up off the tatami mat and strolled to the door when I stopped him.

"Oi, Minato, I'm not finished with the story yet,"

My son scowled, reminding me of my past self as a genin at the Ninja Academy. That brought memories back to me. I tried to get him interested so he wouldn't be complaining throughout my monologue, "Hey, when I'm done, we can go get ramen,"

Minato raised his goldenrod brows and smiled at me, "Promise?"

I exchanged a smile and gave him a thumbs-up sign, "When have I ever gone back on my word?"

"You ask Mom that question all the time and she says—"

"—Hey, hey, let me finish my story," I adjusted Kushina on my lap while Minato trudged back to the mat, reluctantly sitting down. I knew he was curious nonetheless; he was my son after all.

After a deep breath, I started to finally tell my two kids of my life missions: how Sakura and I came to be, how I saved Sasuke, and how I came to be Hokage.

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(A/N:) Next Chapter: Naruto tells his young ones of his Sakura mission.


End file.
